


Someone to Save You

by LiberAmans214



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Actually pretty short whoa, Castiel Saves Dean Winchester, Castiel is a badass, Dean Winchester Whump, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Death, Perpetually, Wing Destiel, hunter husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-26 18:25:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19011373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiberAmans214/pseuds/LiberAmans214
Summary: Dean is wounded, and Castiel comes to his rescue. But, not everything is quite that easy, when Cas has had enough of Dean taking himself for granted, and threatens to never leave his side.





	Someone to Save You

Dean could hear it, even though his right ear was bleeding and everything sounded muffled and distant to him. The crackling in the air, the scream of those demons. Cas was here.

His head throbbed, and every inch of his body ached - his face caked in dried blood and his throat parched. He struggled to keep himself conscious, blinking rapidly to stay in his senses - he’d been prepared to tell his brain to  _stop_ \- for the  _last_  time maybe, to avoid the pain - but he forced himself past the desire to drift into a darker, maybe unfeeling world - making himself focus on the tingling at the back of his neck - his instincts screamed, Cas had to be around.

There came a dying shriek closer than the others, followed by heaving footsteps of perhaps some demons coming his way to secure their victim before they run away. Except it wasn’t them - no wild, ferocious creatures but the angel Dean had feared wouldn’t hear him this time.

“ _Hnrghh!”_ Dean groaned, trying to make his presence known. He was trapped under a crumbled wall, or he could have dragged himself out into the clearing where Cas could see him. He wriggled, but stayed stuck, and tried to ready himself to utter a sound again. “Cas!” Came out, garbled yet comprehensible.

“Dean!” A familiar voice yelled back, keen and concerned. “Are you in here!?”

“Y-yeah,” Dean mustered up all of his courage to let out, and it was coherent enough to be identified, and before Dean knew it, Cas was right next to him - wide, blue eyes staring at him while his hands hovered around Dean’s person methodically, checking his wounds. In a matter of moments, the crushing weight which must’ve at least cracked a few bones in his legs, was lifted - and Cas held two fingers to his forehead, his frown deepening.

“Hey,” Dean choked. “Don’t waste your mojo on me,” He heaved, and Cas narrowed his eyes, listening to him speak. “Go kill those sons of bitches, we can deal with me later.”

“No.” Cas outright declared, his eyes glaring at him furiously and Dean flinched for a moment, as Cas’s grace seemed to pulse through his veins. “I’d rather be a fraction lacking in my grace and have you fighting them off with me, than to be fully powered.”  _While you lie here useless_ , Dean heard in the heavy silence.

He felt Cas’s grace reach out against his soul, and closed his own eyes as a familiar yet bewildering sensation of  _light_  filled his being. Then, in a beat, he was fine. Vastly better, if not ready to take on a room full of demons. 

He breathed heavily, trying to make use of his healed lungs to get as much oxygen as possible. “Cas,” He croaked, and then cleared his throat. “Tha -”

Cas was away from him before he could finish his sentence. “The demons.” He remembered, sparing one last glance at the hunter, as if to say,  _follow me when you can_  - and began to stride towards the entrance again.

There was a lot of stumbling, and minutes of standing still - before Dean was fully tuned in with his surroundings again, and a yelp from  _Cas_  set the adrenaline going. Did he get hurt too? He sprinted out, the best he could, towards the place where the fight was going down, his knife prepared to slash through any demon daring to come in front of him.

But he stopped short, seeing that Cas was the only man -  _Angel_  - standing anymore.

The demons lay pale and scattered, with battered heads, hollow sockets and blood on their faces - either dead, or sufficiently unconscious. Cas stood in the middle of the room, heaving, and looking at Dean instantly as he entered.

“I was gonna join you.” Dean muttered, as an attempt at a joke. “ _Ruined_ the fun, Cas.”

“ _They_  came at me.” Cas bristled, accusatorily staring at the bodies across the room. “I didn’t forget about you, but I defended on instinct.”

“Some defense that is, Smitey McSmiterson.” Dean raised his eyebrows.

Cas rolled his eyes, and began walking towards Cas. “Come on, Dean. Sam doesn’t know I’m here - or that you called me - we should get back.” And although Dean’s perfectly healed, at least technically, Cas tucked himself under his arm, letting Dean lean on him as if he were still limp - as they hobbled out of the setting towards the Impala. “Don’t even think about it,” Cas warned him, right before he could say it. “ _I’m_ driving, and you’re in the back. Stretch your legs.”

Dean looked at him frustratedly. “Stop treating me like I’m hurt, you already healed me.”

“Not as well as you needed to be.” Cas said, and Dean read between the lines.  _Not as well as I used to be able to._

He dodged, and made a joke instead. “Bet this is payback for me sticking you in the back all of these years, but you know what? You  _kinda_ saved my ass majorly today, so fine.”

Cas didn’t reply right away, but after they’ve settled in. He’d insisted that Dean put on the seatbelt and Dean had retorted that if he were to stretch his legs on the backseat as well as put on the seatbelt, he was gonna choke. They’d agreed on a compromise, and Dean had put his legs up on the seat, in return for not arguing with Cas when he drives careful and slow.  _Just don’t hurt my Baby_ , Dean teases, and Cas nodded. There was no music.

“I’m surprised, really.” Cas began to speak finally, as if finally tired of the silence. “No comments on the lines of you  _not_ needing me to show up’?” Dean ‘pfft’ed, and Cas went on. “You didn’t even tell me how you were ‘totally going to kick their asses in another minute’ if I didn’t show up - as you  _never_  fail to point out.”

“Shut up,” Dean grumbled at him from behind, his hand on the seat, inches from Cas’s shoulder. “Don’t quote me to me,  _and_ make me sound like a jackass.”

Cas shrugged.

“And,” Dean didn’t mind the lack of denial from Cas, because he wasn’t expecting any. “I guess I didn’t say that because, uh, it wasn’t like that today.” Cas flinches, but doesn’t turn his head to face Dean yet, and he goes on. “I was well and truly doomed, buddy. Pretty much prepared to  _die_ , if my distress signal hadn’t got caught in your prayer hearing.”

“ _What_  did you just say?” All of the 'cool and calm’ exterior vanished in a single beat, as Cas swerved dangerously, and parked almost abruptly on the side of the road - his eyes large and demanding when he turned to look Dean in the eye. “ _Die_? Did you just say you were prepared to die, Dean Winchester!?”

Dean blinked, taken aback at the aggression. “Dude, calm down -”

“You don’t understand!” His voice rose with every syllable, now fully facing him, and looking downright intimidating. “If it were _anybody_ else there, you would’ve fought with all your might and main to get them out of there! No matter how trapped, and beaten up, Dean - say, if it were  _Sam_  or -  _or_   _me_  there, you wouldn’t have given up so soon! How -” His nostrils flared, and he frowned like Dean had disappointed him. “How can you give up on yourself like that?”

“Damn it, Cas,” Dean muttered, wiping his face with a hand. “I wasn’t giving up on anyone! This wasn’t a  _goddamn_  therapy session - I didn’t  _want_  to die, I had  _no way_  to get out of there!”

Cas’s glare didn’t flinch. He instead turned around without saying a word, started the engine, and began to drive again.

Dean was desperate to get Cas speaking to him again. “Cas, please, let’s stop thinking about this! It was a one time occurrence - I don’t end up almost-dying alone in basements under a wall too often, to my credit - and neither do we have gold stars for consistency in dying!” Cas didn’t react. “Hell Cas, you’ve saved me a bunch of times.”

“Dean.” Cas’s voice was level, but it sounded like it took a helluva lot of dedication to keep it that way. “That’s the thing. I’m not strong enough.”

“That’s bullsh-”

“No. No, its not.” Cas declared, and he had to renew his pledge to not turn back to look at Dean, because it would surely make the conversation that much harder. He overtook a sedan, and went back in his lane, before he continued. “I wasn’t strong enough to heal you completely, without the risk of over-exerting myself too. I wasn’t strong enough to keep off the demons -  _yeah_ , Dean, I smited them, but I couldn’t take them in combat, that’s why I had to assume my trueform and blast them off.” His voice was quiet but his blood boiled. “So, it only makes sense that I’m not strong enough to lift you from perdition either.”

“Call it  _hell_ , buddy.” Dean let out, a terrible attempt at humor.

“Fine. But you know too, Dean, the first time damaged my wings permanently. Now, I can’t even fly. You think I’d be able to pull you up from  _hell_  in my current state? I’m not a hundredth of the being I used to be.” Cas’s voice was grave, and it pierced through Dean.

Another time, he tried hard to lighten the mood which had begun to feel suffocating for both the men in the car. The silence hung heavy, so Dean attempted to streamline through it with a mild line, “Well, Cas - and this is me being  _optimistic_  like Sammy drones on and on about - it’s possible I end up in heaven, right?”

“Nestled in your memories?” Cas threw back, not meaning to be as bitter as he knows he sounded. “So, your plan is to live on with those happy versions of your family, while we on Earth have to live on  _without_  you?” His voice was pained.

Dean withdrew. “No! I mean, angels have sway in heaven, right? You could pull me back - like you did  _Jack_  that time.”

“That’s a different thing.” Cas bristled. “And, no. Nobody is going to let  _me_  get  _you_ , Dean Winchester, back from heaven; because you were too careless in a hunt for your own well-being.” He paused. “I wouldn’t even be let in to meet you - though of course,” The irony smarted. “You’d have your version of all of us with you, but we’d have lost someone like you, before your time, to your lack of will to  _live_.”

“You make it sound like I wandered into their lair unarmed, singing a Christmas carol and wearing an 'eat me’ placard.” Dean weakly laughed, not knowing what else to say.

Cas ignored that sarcasm, but he knew exactly what he wanted to say, though.  _You don’t get it, Dean. And I can’t tell you this, either. I’ve always been scared of you dying, because as a human, your lifespan is_ just so _. But at least I had the option of dying alongside you. Now? I cannot even do that. Because without you, how will I ever be happy - and how will the Empty ever show up? If you die, Dean Winchester, it’ll mean that I have to_ live _without_ you _, forever._

But of course he couldn’t say that. That’d make everything worse.

So, in the mildest tone he could conjure - because this conversation was getting way more serious than either of them had wanted or were ready for - he said, “Listen, Dean. All I can say is -”

“- yeah, yeah, I know. Death is off the table, blah-blah.” Dean muttered.

“It sure is.” Cas even smiled, as much as he could. “And you’re aware we don’t have any more Worlds to save, or Apocalypses to prevent - so I can and  _will_  use all my time following you around on all your hunts -  _invisible_ , if I have to.” He added, jesting.

“I dunno how to break this to you,” Dean relaxed momentarily, and his smile was audible. “But you’ve got to work on your threats.”

“I don’t care if it sounds like an incentive,” Cas replied, simply. “I have been told that I have no regards for people’s personal space,” He paused, and half turned so that he could see Dean in the corner of his eye. He looked more at ease, and Castiel was grateful. “So I’ll make you -”

“Regret this day, for the rest of my life?” Dean suggested and Castiel smiled too. Even when he turned back to face the road fully, their eyes met often, just for those fleeting moments - until Dean fell asleep, and it was just Cas, stealing those precious glances at the exhausted hunter in the backseat - for as long as he had, at the very least - and thought of Dean, and of death, and of how selfish it was of him to wish for them to never meet. And how hard he’d try to not let it happen.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Whaddya think?
> 
> Have an awesome day, and Keep It Sailing!
> 
> I'm active on [ here. ](https://misha-moose-dean-burger-lover.tumblr.com)


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